Snowballing speculation over a NASA press conference – I don’t generally like to talk about NASA press conferences before they happen because I don’t want to promote baseless rumor-mongering. In this case, though, I feel I have to write something to prevent speculation! Here’s the scoop: NASA released the news that a press conference will be held on Thursday at 14:00 ET, saying that the conference will “discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.” -Phil Plait / Bad Astronomy

Cassini Finds Warm Cracks on Enceladus – New images and data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft give scientists a unique Saturn-lit view of active fissures through the south polar region of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. They reveal a more complicated web of warm fractures than previously thought. -NASA / JPL

Venus holds warning for Earth – A mysterious high-altitude layer of sulphur dioxide discovered by ESA’s Venus Express has been explained. As well as telling us more about Venus, it could be a warning against injecting our atmosphere with sulphur droplets to mitigate climate change. -ESA

M82 - The image is the result of fusIon of good resolutIon on galactic nucleous taken with the big Newton and deep image in h-alpha showing M82 red jet taken with very long exposure on TSA102 - Credit: Stefano Campani - Roberto Barcellona